Friday, October 30, 2015

Work Can Be Positive Economic Validation

Many a well meaning person has reasoned that no one should have to "work for a living" - even Buckminster Fuller (apparently), who I have long admired for his contributions and ideas. However - in Fuller's defense - I really don't think he shared Bertrand Russell's viewpoints about work in this Open Culture article.

Like so many in the present, Buckminster Fuller envisioned technology as creating circumstance where people would eventually not need to work. Even so, he apparently believed that technological gains would lead to spontaneous forms of productive activity, which did not necessarily need to be measured or validated in a formal sense.

As it turns out (with too many decades of unfortunate examples already), people are not good at replicating productive activity, if and when monetary and economic validation are not well embedded in primary social patterns.Just the same, it isn't easy for those of limited means (myself included) to explain why the marginalized need dynamic relationships and interaction with resource capacity, through the course of their lifetimes.

When people lose connections, the results of the loss are difficult for all concerned. One of the greatest challenges of the present, is a need for broader workplace classifications: not just for what people need to accomplish, but also what they would like to accomplish.

Consider what economic intent actually consists of. Despite the sometimes negative connotations associated with economic activity, validation of economic activity is central to the wealth creation which societies rely on. Instead of reacting to "negative" forms of wealth creation, why not frame the dialogue to include the positives which participants imagine? Economic activity - first and foremost, is about validation. And the potential for validation is not something that exists separately from us. It is what we are, and what we could be as well.

Time based relationships are important, and they can be ultimately be validated if we want more freedom in our economic realities. A marketplace for time value, would mean greater freedom in how people choose to manage services generation within local groups. Much of what people desire in the workplace can be made real, by way of replication, coordination and the monetary/time/resource backed compensation which leads to cumulative gains over time.

Economic validation matters, particularly when technology could gradually (otherwise) close the loop for social and workplace interaction at local levels. A time based marketplace would restore labor force participation, and insure that populations are always able to purchase what the benefits of technology have made possible. Presently, too many forms of assistance have been generated on non economic terms. By finding ways to formalize, strengthen and monetize these connections, the human desire to assist and help others, would eventually provide a vital role in economic activity,